THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12936, 29 November 1909, Page 5

THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.

■■■ m ■ Perfect weather conditions prevailed here | throughout th«^ipee Bin. Saturday evening. Owing to other duties the moon, was not observed Ijy the writer until it yas totally immersep -in-Ahc earth's shadow. It was at once seen that we had what might be termed a "bright" eclipse, the upper, southern, portion of the moon appearing very little obet;uredj The pronounced coppery hue was very apparent on the lower northern side. {Phis^vafiation in the depth of shading of an . eclipse, is supposed to be due to the.- condition of the atmosphere' around that "portion of the earth upon which the siui s rays are parallel with its surface and throua[|i. < .whicn it is refracted on to the moon's surface/ Stars down to the sth magnitude and some fainter ones could be seen throughout the total phase, the sixth magnitude stars near the Hyades close to the moon 'a pjaee being as easily seen as upon a night devoid of moonlight. The position of Halley'e comet being 1 calculated for the evening , a search wa« ( made during totality, but no sign of this' object was visible in the 9J inch refractorAs the moon came out of the shadow the effect of lrradioation was very marked, the bright portion appearing to have a. diam- ; cter equal to quite ' one-filth more than tlian still within the shadow, which appeared very dark by comparison. Stars of the sth magnitude were lost' when the shadow had ceased to obscure about one-half the moon's surface and the 4th were not^asy when two-thirds was uncovered. • ' The shadow appeared to ,be of a dark greyish hue near its edge as seen projected on the moon's surface for about 35 or 40 degrees of lunar diameter and behind this of the coppery' .hue. The edge Of shadow as, sefcn in the telescope appeared to be different when nassmg over depressions such as the mare serenitatis and nectaris, an effect due to the background as over the brighter, elevated portions of the lunar surface, the line was sharply defined. The penumbral shadow was plainly' seen when the true Shadow wae- within tfce last quarter of the moon's disc. ' It appeared much deeper at centre and appeared to. run. but at* edges of disc giving the appearance of shorter radius instead' of thd revease.; The last contact appeared to be, as nearly as it could be fixed, atlOhrs. 9min. 50sec. p.m..